1. Welcome We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place
For the first time.
--T.S. Eliot

2. Welcome Shawn Messmer Assistant Superintendent,
Maine Township High School District 207

3. Dan Rothstein Co-Director, The Right Question Institute
An Introduction to the Question Formulation Technique
Best Practices in the QFT
Midwest Seminar
Maine South HS
June 26, 2017
Matt Parrilli
Maine South High School
Sarah Westbrook
The Right Question Institute
Dan Rothstein Co-Director, The Right Question Institute

4. Acknowledgments
We are deeply grateful to the Sir John Templeton Foundation and The Hummingbird Fund for their generous support of the Million Classrooms Campaign. We are grateful also to Matt Parrilli for his creativity and thought partnership in the planning for this seminar and to Shawn Messmer, Dan Bachar, Luz Santana, and Erin Block for extensive work on planning and logistics behind the scenes.

5. Today’s Agenda
Collaborative Learning Using the Question Formulation Technique (QFT)
Unpacking the QFT: Three Thinking Abilities and Classroom Examples
Lesson Planning and Design Using QFT
The Art & Science of the QFT
Lunch
Workshop Sessions
Advancing the Work from Conference to Action
Self-Organized Working Groups
QFT Slam Presentations
Q & A, Closing Reflections & Evaluation

6. The Right Question Institute offers our materials through a Creative Commons License and we encourage you to make use of and/or share this resource. Please reference the Right Question Institute and rightquestion.org as the source on any materials you use. Access Today’s Materials: resources/

7. We’re Tweeting… @RightQuestion @RothsteinDan @MattParrilli
#QFTCON #QFT

8. LAWRENCE, MA, 1990
“We don’t go to the school because we don’t even know what to ask.”

9. "There is no learning without having to pose a question."
-Richard Feynman, Nobel-Prize- winning physicist

10. School-Family Partnership
Health Care
Innovation
Voter Engagement

11. “We must teach students how to think in questions, how to manage ignorance.”
-Stuart Firestein, Chairman of the Department of Biology at Columbia University

12. College Presidents on What Students Should Learn in College
“The primary skills should be analytical skills of interpretation and inquiry. In other words, know how to frame a question.”
- Leon Botstein, President of Bard College
“…the best we can do for students is have them ask the right questions.”
- Nancy Cantor, Chancellor of University of Illinois
The New York Times, August 4, 2002

13. Yet…only 27%of students believe college taught them to ask their own questions
Alison Head, Project Information Literacy at University of Washington, 2016

14. But, the problem begins long before college...

15. Percentage of Basic Skill Attainment
Sources
Data on question-asking based on parent and teacher feedback

16. Percentage of Basic Skill Attainment
Sources
Data on question-asking based on parent and teacher feedback

17. We can work together on changing the direction of that slope

18. We Are Not Alone
250,000 educators using the strategy all over the world

19. What happens when students do learn to ask their own questions?

20. Research Confirms the Importance of Student Questioning
Self-questioning (metacognitive strategy):
Student formulation of their own questions is one of the most effective metacognitive strategies
Engaging in pre-lesson self-questioning improved students rate of learning by nearly 50% (Hattie, p.193)
John Hattie
Visible Learning: A Synthesis of Over 800
meta-Analyses Relating to Achievement, 2008

21. Student Reflections
“Just when you think you know all you need to know, you ask another question and discover how much more there is to learn.”
~ Sixth-grade student, Palo Alto, CA
“When you ask the question, you feel like it’s your job to get the answer.”
~ High School student, Boston, MA

22. The Question Formulation Technique (QFT)
Students learn to:
Produce their own questions
Improve their questions
Strategize on how to use their questions
Reflect on what they have learned and how they learned it
#QFTCon #QFT

23. Experience the Question Formulation Technique (QFT)

24. Rules for Producing Questions
1. Ask as many questions as you can
2. Do not stop to answer, judge, or discuss
3. Write down every question exactly as stated
4. Change any statements into questions

25. Producing Questions Ask Questions Follow the Rules
Ask as many questions as you can.
Do not stop to answer, judge, or discuss.
Write down every question exactly as it was stated.
Change any statements into questions.
Number the Questions

26. Some students are not asking questions.
Question Focus:
Some students are not asking questions.

27. Categorizing Questions: Closed/ Open
Definitions:
Closed-ended questions can be answered with a “yes” or “no” or with a one-word answer.
Open-ended questions require
more explanation.
Directions: Identify your questions as closed-ended or open-ended by marking them with a “C” or an “O.”

28. Closed-ended Questions
Discussion
Closed-ended Questions
Advantages
Disadvantages

29. Discussion
Open-ended Questions
Advantages
Disadvantages

30. Improving Questions Closed Open Closed Open
Take one closed-ended question and change it into an open-ended question.
Take one open-ended question and change it into a closed-ended question.
Closed
Open
Open
Closed

31. Strategize: Prioritizing Questions
Review your list of questions
Choose the three questions you consider most important.
While prioritizing, think about your Question Focus: Some students are not asking questions.
After prioritizing consider…
Why did you choose those three questions?
Where are your priority questions in the sequence of your entire list of questions?

32. Strategize: Next Steps
From priority questions to action plan
In order to answer your priority questions:
What do you need to know? Information
What do you need to do? Tasks

33. Share Questions you changed from open/closed
Your three priority questions and their numbers in your original sequence
Rationale for choosing priority questions
Next steps

34. Reflection How did you learn it?
What did you learn?
How did you learn it?
What do you understand differently now about some students not asking questions?

35. Today’s Agenda
Collaborative Learning Using the Question Formulation Technique (QFT)
Unpacking the QFT: Three Thinking Abilities and Classroom Examples
Lesson Planning and Design Using QFT
The Art & Science of the QFT
Lunch
Workshop Sessions
Advancing the Work from Conference to Action
Self-Organized Working Groups
QFT Slam Presentations
Q & A, Closing Reflections & Evaluation
#QFTCon #QFT

36. Let’s peek inside the black box
#QFTCon #QFT

37. “Modern science is a technique
“Modern science is a technique...it is a practice that allows us to learn reliable things about the world. [Science] is a technique that was waiting for people to discover it.”
-Steven Weinberg, Nobel laureate in Physics
To Explain the World, 2015

38. The QFT, on one slide… Question Focus Produce Your Questions
Follow the rules
Number your questions
Improve Your Questions
Categorize questions as Closed or Open-ended
Change questions from one type to another
Prioritize Your Questions
Share & Discuss Next Steps
Reflect
Ask as many questions as you can
Do not stop to discuss, judge or answer
Record exactly as stated
Change statements into questions
Closed-Ended:
Answered with “yes,” “no” or one word
Open-Ended: Require longer explanation

39. Three thinking abilities with one process
Curiosity and Rigor
Three thinking abilities with one process

40. Thinking in many different directions
DIVERGENT THINKING

41. Narrowing Down, Focusing
CONVERGENT
THINKING

42. Thinking about Thinking
METACOGNITIVE
THINKING

43. Student Reflection
“The way it made me feel was smart because I was asking good questions and giving good answers.”
-Boston 9th grade remedial summer school student

44. Exploring Classroom Examples
#QFTCon #QFT

45. Educators use the QFT for many purposes, including:
Engagement
Knowledge Acquisition
Formative Assessment
Summative Assessment
Peer review
Skill development
And more…
#QFTCon #QFT

46. Classroom Example: High School
Teacher: Ling-Se Peet, Boston, MA Topic: 12th Grade Humanities unit on The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz Purpose: To help students generate questions for a Socratic Seminar at the end of the unit

47. The Question Formulation Technique (QFT) in Action

48. Next Steps:
Students’ priority questions were used as the prompts for a Socratic Seminar discussion in class the next day
Students wrote a final paper informed by discussions during the QFT and Socratic Seminar

49. Classroom Example: Kindergarten
Teacher: Jennifer Shaffer, Walkersville, MD
Topic: Non-fiction literacy
Purpose: To engage students prior to reading a nonfiction text about alligators

50. Question Focus

51. Student Questions Is the alligator camouflaged?
Why do the babies have stripes?
Are those baby crocodiles?
Is it a mom or dad crocodile?
What is the green stuff?
Why are they in the water so low?
Where are they going?
Why are the baby alligator’s eyes white and the mom’s black?
Why are baby alligators on top of the momma alligator?
Why does momma or daddy have bumps on them?

52. Classroom Example: 4th Grade
Teacher: Deirdre Brotherson, Hooksett, NH
Topic: Math unit on variables
Purpose: To engage students at the start of a unit on variables

53. Question Focus
24 =  +  + 

54. Student Questions Why is the 24 first? What do the smiley faces mean?
Why are there 3 smiley faces?
How am I suppose to figure this out?
Is the answer 12?
Can I put any number for a smiley face?
Do three faces mean something?
Do the numbers have to be the same because the smiley faces are the same?
What numbers will work here?
Does it mean 24 is a really happy number?
Can we replace each smiley face with an 8?
Do any other numbers work?
Can we do this for any number?
Does it always have to be smiley faces?
Do we always have to use three things?

55. Next Steps Students’ questions posted on classroom walls.
Students crossed off questions they answered during subsequent lessons in the unit.
Teacher returned to student questions at the end of the unit to discuss with students what they learned and what they still wanted to know.

56. Classroom Example: 7th Grade
Teacher: Nicole Bolduc, Ellington, CT Topic: “The Universe and Its Stars” Unit Purpose: To engage students in setting the learning agenda for the unit and assess their ability to connect to previous units

57. Question Focus:
Students watched videos of dramatic tide change in Cape Cod, Alaska, and Canada
*Note: teacher also used a QFT process first with the scientist’s claim as a Qfocus. Students designed their experiments based on their own questions (generated during the QFT about the scientist’s claim)

58. Selected Student Questions
Why does tide change?
How is tide created?
Can tide change be a problem in the future?
How does earth’s rotation cause the tide to change?
Does global warming affect tides?
Does the sun have any part in the rise and retreat of tides?
Where does the water go to?
Does temperature have anything to do with tides?  
Do tides occur because of the gravitational pull of the moon?
Does tilt have anything to do with tides?
Do the phases of the moon come into play with the tides?
Does this happen on other planets?
How do other planets affect it?
How do fish & wildlife survive when the tide is always changing?
Are the tides opposite in Florida and Mexico? (b/c they share the Gulf of Mexico)
If the moon disappeared, would there be no tides?
How come the tide changes greatly in some places but not others?
What would happen if the tide didn’t change?
How far can high tide go?
Why are tides important to the earth?
How do tides affect people?

59. Prioritization
Prioritization Instructions: “Questions a scientist who is studying the environment and our world would ask.”
Students from 5 different classes voted electronically on 10 priority questions
From the list of 10, they created (with teacher support) one new priority question: “How and why does the water rise and recede in Alaska, Canada, and Cape Cod?”
This became the guiding question for the unit

60. Next Steps:
Students drew initial models in response to “How and why does the water rise and recede in Alaska, Canada, and Cape Cod?”
Students viewed each other’s models, gave constructive feedback, and asked questions.
The whole class discussed initial ideas about the phenomenon of tides and predicted answers to some QFT questions.
Next, students experienced a series of targeted scientific investigations created around their QFT questions.
After each investigation, students answered their questions on a digital platform and on paper versions posted around the classroom.

61. Student Reflections

62. Student Reflections
“We came in with roller coasters and came out with the knowledge of kinetic energy. Mrs. B. almost tricks us into learning science.” “At the beginning of the year, we were asking questions just because we had to get to a certain number. Now we ask questions because that’s what we’re actually going to learn about so what you ask really matters.”

63. Classroom Example: High School
Teacher: Kelly Grotrian, East Brunswick, NJ Topic: 11th Grade U.S. History Purpose: To conclude a unit on World War II and lead into an informed debate about US use of atomic weapons

64. Question Focus

65. Student Questions What is this? Who did this?
How did this affect people?
What were the environmental & economic implications of dropping the bomb?
How many people were hurt?
Is that a plane wing in the bottom right?
Did the people in that plane drop the bomb?
Did the people dropping the bomb know what they were doing?
Did they make the bomb?
Who was responsible for dropping the bomb?
What led to this event?
What happened as a result of dropping the bomb?
Where was the bomb dropped?
Had people been given warning?
How long did it take to notice effects of the bomb?
When did this happen (at what point in the war)?
How many lives were lost as a result?

66. Next Steps:
Students chose priority questions to respond to in a homework assignment that night
Homework and subsequent lessons lead into a debate about whether the United States was justified in dropping the atomic bomb

67. Classroom Example: University
Teacher: Rachel Woodruff, Assistant Professor of Biology, Brandeis University, MA Topic: Molecular Biology Purpose: To build students’ research skills and prepare them to develop their own research proposal

68. Ask as many questions as you can about the reading
Question Focus:
(Students were assigned a complex molecular biology article)
Ask as many questions as you can about the reading

69. Next Steps:
Students generate questions about a complex article on their own
Students discuss the key attributes of a good biological research question and compare to other types of questions
Students form groups and improve their questions, based on these attributes

70. Final Words: Universal Relevance
#QFTCon #QFT

71. In the Age of Google…
“How should you respond when you get powerful new tools for finding answers?
Think of harder questions.”
- Clive Thompson, Journalist and Technology Blogger

72. Occam’s Razor
“ All things being equal, the simplest solution tends to be the best one.”
- William of Occam

73. Occam’s Razor
“ All things being equal, the simplest solution tends to be the best one.”
- William of Occam

74. The Skill of Asking Questions
For moving from ignorance to knowledge
For arriving at better answers
For increasing engagement and ownership
For demonstrating inquiry in the classroom
For a little more joy in a very demanding profession
And…

75. Democracy
“We need to be taught to study rather than to believe, to inquire rather than to affirm.” - Septima Clark
See Chapter 6 on Septima Clark in Freedom Road: Adult Education of African Americans (Peterson, 1996).

76. The Right Question Institute offers many of our materials through a Creative Commons License and we encourage you to make use of and/or share this resource. Please reference the Right Question Institute as the source on any materials you use.
Source:

77. Today’s Agenda
Collaborative Learning Using the Question Formulation Technique (QFT)
Unpacking the QFT: Three Thinking Abilities and Classroom Examples
Lesson Planning and Design Using QFT
The Art & Science of the QFT
Lunch
Workshop Sessions
Advancing the Work from Conference to Action
Self-Organized Working Groups
QFT Slam Presentations
Q & A, Closing Reflections & Evaluation
#QFTCon #QFT